I know that baseball is America’s pastime, but it has been years since I have been able to sit and watch a full game on television.
However, with the excitement surrounding Wednesday night’s game seven of the 2016 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs, I could not resist tuning in. One game to decide if one team, the Cubs, would win their first championship since 1908. Or would the Indians win their first World Series since 1948?
Cleveland is all too familiar with championship droughts. There had not been a championship team from that city since 1964 until this past spring when NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 3 games to 1 deficit in the NBA Finals to take home that franchise’s first NBA Championship and finally brought a title to a deprived city of Cleveland after 52 years. Ironically the Indians had a three games to one series lead in this World Series and now they had given up that two game lead and now were down to one game for the championship.
I was in my room studying during the deciding game and the thought of turning the TV on to watch game seven never even crossed my mind. That was, until I took a break from my studies to check Twitter. While I scrolled through my feed I noticed that the game was being talked about by not only athletes, but also by people that are not even sports fans. At that point I knew I was missing out on something special and quickly retrieved my remote to put the game on. The Cubs had the lead by 3 runs going into the bottom of the 8th inning before Cleveland fought back and sent the game into extra innings.
It was at that point that the skies opened and the umpires were forced to stop the game. The 17-minute rain delay was enough to have me on the edge of my seat waiting for the game to return. When the game resumed, I knew that every pitch was going to critical and that every swing of the bat could mean a championship for either side. I began to have flashbacks to my years of softball growing up and felt like I was playing in the game myself. My heart beat faster every time a bat made contact with a ball. The Cubs put two runs on the board in the top of the 10th inning and put themselves in the position of being three outs away from ending that 108-year curse. Of course nothing is ever that simple; Cleveland refused to go away quietly and with two outs the Indians mounted another comeback. They scored one run and now, with a runner on base, they had the championship run at bat. But, in the end, it was the Cubs night. An innocent ground out ended the game making the Cubs champions, history makers and heroes in the city of Chicago.
I have heard so many complaints about the game of baseball. People say it is too slow, especially for young people like me. But I think the game on Wednesday night changed the minds of many people. Over 40 million people watched the game making it the most viewed game seven of the World Series since 1993.
If only every baseball game was like the game on Wednesday, I would spend my summers locked in my house watching games all day. Unfortunately, that is not the case. So, I will continue to tune into the postseason only when my beloved New York Yankees are playing. However, I may start to tune into the World Series from now on no matter what teams are playing, though it is impossible to match the excitement of this year’s matchup. This series has caused me to America’s pastime another chance.
